Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Taps Expertise, SEOs Weigh ‘Pigeon’

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology

Foursquare’s Redesign Will Make Expertise the New Gamification (Pando)
The company introduced a new type of “status,” which it is calling expertise. Users will gain ranking for leaving tips in various categories, such as coffee shops and pizza, or particular neighborhoods. It’s a model similar to that utilized by LinkedIn and Klout in which the social platforms have looked to categorize and recognize users for their various areas of expertise or influence.

Openings and New Hires at xAd, Reply!, AddThis and Newscycle (Street Fight)
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, moves and new openings at Hubspot, Colony Logic, Local SEO Guide,AdMax Local, PlaceIQ and Signpost.

Experts Weigh In On Google’s “Pigeon” Update Aimed At Improving Local Search Results (SearchEngineLand)
Last week, Google made new search waves when it rolled out updates to its local search algorithm. The update aims to deliver improved local search results, with enhanced distance and location ranking parameters. Now that we’re a week out, we asked a few local search experts what they have seen since Google set its “Pigeon” update free.

Case Study: Tampa Restaurant Boosts Business With Mobile Waitlist (Street Fight)
By integrating mobile waitlist management platforms into their business operations, restaurants may be able to increase the length of time that guests are willing to wait for tables. This makes it possible to get more customers seated in the average day or night, and ultimately boosts the bottom line for restaurants.

San Francisco Airport Tests Beacon Sensors to Guide Blind Travelers (Mashable)
The airport is rolling out a pilot program later this year that could help blind travelers navigate within a terminal with the guidance of beacon technology. Tiny sensors called beacons will be tested in one of the airport’s newest terminals (Terminal 2, home to American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airlines) and potentially expand to other terminals in the future.

The New York Times’ New App Strategy Seems Lackluster At Best — So What Now? (GigaOm)
Mathew Ingram: The paper has to start making some bold bets if it wants to fulfill even a small part of the vision outlined in its “innovation report,” and apps (or even a print version) that provide what amounts to a small subsection of its existing news aren’t really going to cut it.

Restaurant Payment App Settle Raises $1.5M To Bring Waiter-Free Service To Eastern Europe (TechCrunch)
There are a host of companies attempting to make settling your bill at a restaurant ‘waiter-free’, by employing a smartphone app and accompanying mobile payment and POS system. These include behemoths such as PayPal, with its ‘Pay At Table‘ service, along with upstarts that include U.S.-based Dash, Tabbedout, and Cover, the UK’s Flypay, and Tel Aviv-based MyCheck. Now aptly-named Settle is putting its wares on the table.

No, ‘Journopreneurs’ Are Not Killing Journalism (CJR)
Ann Friedman: I think many entrepreneurial journalists do care about traditional journalistic values like informing the public and exposing injustice. They’re just pragmatic about how to get things done in the digital era, and they’re interested in the new opportunities it offers.